


Year of the Archer

by soaringrachel



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Clint is Katniss and Natasha is Gale; don't tell me otherwise, Crack, Gen, silliness, year of the archer madness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-10
Updated: 2012-06-10
Packaged: 2017-11-07 10:29:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/430053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soaringrachel/pseuds/soaringrachel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clint may have slightly over-identified with a certain bow-wielding brunette.</p>
<p>Natasha may in fact be aware of this.</p>
<p>And now the rest of the team is too.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Year of the Archer

"This mission's just a recon," Hill says, facing the six Avengers, all sprawled out in various affects of boredom. It's been a month and a half since the last big thing and even Steve's military posture is slipping; the rest of them are downright slouching, Tony tipping his chair back on two legs, Bruce cross-legged on the floor, Thor slumped over the table, Clint perched on the back of Natasha's chair. "We'll only need one of you to go and check it out."

Clint's hand shoots up fastest, and Natasha smirks. "Agent Barton volunteers," she says lazily. "He volunteers as tribute."

Barton, astonishingly, blushes.

"All right then," Hill says, "Barton it is. Go get ready."

Barton walks out of the room. "Come back a victor!" Natasha calls after him.

 

Clint comes back from Georgia a couple days later. Stark invites them all to dinner; it's good enough pretext for a party. Steve walks in late, gift of a baguette tucked under his arm. "If it isn't the boy with the bread," Natasha says, deadpan.

"Thought that'd be you," Tony says, catching on.

Natasha waits, and sure enough:

"Did you even read the books?" Clint asks. "She's obviously Gale."

Natasha raises that eyebrow, the one that's crueler than a Tony Stark smirk or a belly laugh from Thor, and Clint looks horrified at what he's just said.

"You just totally embarrassed yourself," Tony says, "Real or not real?"

("Pepper read them," he whispers to Natasha when Clint isn't looking.)

 

They're fighting, finally, and Iron Man shoots the last guy down just as Clint looses an arrow; it goes, _thunk_ , an inch deep into the wood door behind him.

"That," Thor pronounces, "is mahogany!"

There's a moment of silence, and then Bruce (sitting this one out in the jet, because this is a _historic neighborhood_ ) starts laughing over the comm, and suddenly none of them can stop.

Thor looks insanely pleased with himself.

"Tony's education in Midgardian entertainment has served me well, has it not?" he says. Unfortunately, then he turns out to be an incurable joke-repeater, and Iron Man has to punch him.

 

They go to a meet-and-greet; Natasha is angry, and Bruce is shy, and Tony and Steve are in their element, in different ways. Clint stands to the side, less popular than the other five, and talks archery to the fanatics, and signs autographs for the few that ask. Natasha notices pretty early on the little girl that's just standing a few feet behind him, hanging on his every word, but not going up, not introducing herself. She waits, though, until a few of them are over there to stage whisper, "Katniss, I think you have a shadow."

 

They have an interview, after that, and Fury tries to train them in interview technique, which leads to Bruce calling him "Effie" and Tony himself promising not to confess his love on camera ("Not that I don't love you, Katniss, man, I do, but there will be no star-crossed lovers of SHIELD.")

"Right," Clint mutters.

 

Some idiot at SHIELD thinks it would be _so cool_ if they all wore capes, so they're trying them out today, not in battle, just on a training exercise. Still, Tony mutters something about "hasn't anybody here seen _The Incredibles_ ," but the capes are a go, and anyway, his is just a snappy metal ruff; the rest of them are the real flapping-in-the-wind McCoy.

Clint's blows out behind him into a nearby explosion, and it starts burning dramatically, flames fanning out and creeping towards his shoulders.

Everyone just stares for a minute, and then Clint, very slowly, very shamefully twirls.

 

Steve is coordinating over the comm, calling, "Black Widow, to your left!" and "Iron Man, try a dive," and "Thor, can I have you on top of the bank?" There's a nice high point that he can see from where he is but no one else can, and he needs to get Clint there, so he calls out to him.

"Hey, Mockingjay, get up behind you and to your right!"

For once, even Tony Stark stops the comm chatter.

"Sorry," Steve says. "Hawkeye. Order stands."

"Mockingjay?" Clint asks quietly.

"He did in fact call you Mockingjay," Tony confirms.

"All right!" Clint shouts. "All right! I've read all three books! Twice! I went to the movie five times! I hate President Snow! District Twelve forever! _I think Effie and Haymitch should just get married_."

There is a pause.

"I, Clint Barton, am a teenage girl!" he screams.

Then there are some kind of ice guns, and everyone remembers what they were doing.

(Bruce, afterward, is very sad to have missed it; luckily JARVIS plays him a recording.)

 

Back at SHIELD headquarters, Natasha finds Clint in front of a computer terminal, watching . . . her, apparently.

"Clint," she says. "I'm sorry it came to that."

"Hmmm," Clint says, "I've just been looking at some footage from the fight with Loki."

Natasha tenses--what is this--but he's smirking.

"'Thank you for your cooperation', Tash? Wonder where you got _that_ idea."

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, I don't know, I got home from my third Avengers viewing and I had to write/post something to celebrate, so I did this basically in one go.
> 
> If Tony does not call Clint "Katniss" (or "Mockingjay") in a future movie I will be sorely disappointed.
> 
> (Also: sorely tempted to write the AU where Clint is Katniss and Natasha is Gale and Steve is Peeta and Tony is Haymitch but I do NOT need more full-length fic in my life right now)


End file.
